Academic publishing

The British Museum learned it was wrong to brush off a whistleblower. Universities and journals should do the same, says David Sanders

Forcing UKRI-backed researchers to publish their papers as preprints would save £40 million annually and ‘accelerate scientific progress’, says thinktank

If the choice is between impact factor and maintaining the content’s integrity, there is little contest

Difficult conversations about how the REF’s post-2029 open access books mandate will be financed cannot be avoided, say experts

Rethink on Research Excellence Framework’s demand that submitted monographs should be freely available follows fierce condemnation of a policy described as ‘unaffordable’ and ‘excessively bureaucratic’

We need a mechanism whereby academics can build a public reputation as referees and receive career benefits for doing so, says Randy Robertson

Fed up with a lowly position on the author list? If so, getting creative with surnames could be the solution, a study suggests

Researchers claim that Taylor & Francis kept details of deal quiet, but company insists that citation and limits on verbatim quoting will be sacrosanct

‘There’s an assumption that if you pay for something, it is going to be better quality than if it’s free,’ says librarian involved in Hong Kong collaboration

Institute of Physics Publishing is making innovative efforts to broaden the referee pool beyond the usual suspects, says Laura Feetham-Walker

Extending embargoes and permitting more exceptions are likelier than a full U-turn, suggest academic publishing experts

Platform must overcome cost and participation hurdles, but would benefit readers and researchers, experts say

If the best books aren’t REFable, UK research will appear artificially weak, say Heather Widdows, Fiona Macpherson and Simon Kirchin 

Chapter of Sexual Misconduct in Academia was previously withdrawn after academic claimed he was identified

British Academy urges Research Excellence Framework leaders to pause open access plans as sector bodies highlight ‘crushing costs’

Editors and production staff say final offer is insufficient given recent inflation rises and publisher’s profits

A fixation on publishing in ‘academic comic books’ is subverting the values permeating business schools, conference hears

‘Excessively bureaucratic’ and ‘unaffordable’ rules on open access proposed for the next Research Excellence Framework should be discarded, say university executives

Months after Harvard Law Review rejected analysis of Gaza genocide allegation, Columbia’s version does the same

Researchers say emails suggest disapproval of social media posts on transgender issues contributed to rejections

Policy expert told he would have to cover publication fee himself post-retirement alleges ‘blatant age discrimination’

Survey indicates that researchers are poorly prepared for upcoming shift to free-to-read model

Global survey of peer reviewers reveals deep distrust towards ChatGPT, with some calling for a complete ban on its use in research and academia

These initiatives don’t demand extra funding, undervalue publisher input or create institutional or disciplinary divides, say Anthony Cond and Jane Bunker

Universities in countries that speak Dutch or German found to have higher research performance scores than those in Japan 

Extra costs linked to proposed new Research Excellence Framework rules could send art history departments to the wall, warns Francesca Berry

Proposed changes to how scholars publish show little awareness of how they will profoundly reshape academic life, says David Lund

US’ biggest charitable foundation, with focus on global health, abandons APCs in favour of preprint repositories

Generative AI firms should stop ripping off publishers and instead work with them to enrich scholarship, says Oxford University Press’ David Clark

Poll of researchers finds little support for pulling scholarly papers of those found guilty of objectionable personal behaviour

Researchers say precariously employed academics will lose out if universities are required to stump up fees for open access

While critics decry ‘attack on academic freedom and integrity’, publisher says new blood prevents journal from becoming ‘insular’

Requiring OA publication would have left bookshops’ history sections narrower in scope and the preserve of a select few authors, says Rory Cormac

Editors express concern over dating of soil samples ‘not associated with manmade features’, but authors attack ‘unjust retraction of groundbreaking research’

Changing funding rules could shift the dial on open science, Australian paper argues

Swift clarification of exemption for mass-market books follows claims that REF open access requirements would destroy publishing opportunities for scholars

Extension of journal mandate to monographs designed to ‘make research more open and equitable’, but has historically been a source of controversy

London Book Fair discussion dominated by concern over large language models using published works without citations or remuneration to authors or publishing houses

Investigation follows publishing controversy that saw chapter detailing allegations withdrawn by Routledge

Deal ‘an important step in PeerJ’s evolution’, co-founders say

Jisc review finds UK ahead of global average on open access, but questions whether purportedly temporary measures are proving effective at driving change

Open peer review has ‘potential to be more thorough, inclusive and collegial’ than traditional journal-led route, funders and publishers say

Article on MeToo movement in Iran named researcher, who denies wrongdoing, as ‘serial abuser’

Power relations would be more equitable if all leading disciplinary journals and books were published in multiple languages, says Simon Marginson

The strange cases of scholars churning out several reviews a day are perplexing, given the lack of obvious rewards for such prodigious output

Scarce funding means only the library-driven Subscribe to Open scheme is viable outside the sciences, says Christina Lembrecht

Policy that has allowed universities to automatically charge students for course materials comes under threat from Biden administration

Partnership with Institute for Replication will support reproduction and replication attempts tied to papers published from 2023 onwards

The rise of open-access journals in response to initiatives such as Plan S has tightened the grip of big publishers on the scholarly publishing market, analysis claims

The British Library cyber-attack underlines that HE and research libraries’ technologies and policies put us at too much risk, says Fiona Greig

Scopus AI will be ‘valuable tool’ for researchers seeking to explore academic disciplines and study areas, says leading publisher

Both publishers and the editing firms they outsource to must seek informed consent to use academics’ IP, say Alan Blackwell and Zoe Swenson-Wright

Firm to axe a third of its workforce following ‘downturn’ in publishing trends

The nectar of power and prestige is sweet, but modern editors have to swallow an embittering volume of hard graft, too, says Adrian Furnham

While new database signals ‘ongoing endeavour’, dominance of existing subscription database unlikely to be challenged any time soon

Row at Journal of International Students spotlights challenges faced by periodicals that are free to publish in and read, and rely on volunteer labour

Prestigious publishing group will allow authors to incorporate AI-written text and figures into papers if technology use is acknowledged and explained

Publishers face being ‘mere service providers’ under new vision, but critics question whether global adoption of proposals will be any wider than their predecessors

Leading supplier of basic research funding says scientists complicate its accountability systems by routinely attributing publications to it

Academics could cooperate to decommercialise publishing so that all students have affordable access to reliable information, says Michael Wynn-Williams